Eating for optimum health.

The Paleo Learning Curve

One of the first things I’m learning about eating differently has nothing to do with nutrients, their names or their affects on the body, studies or websites. One of the first things I found out was that if you are not a consistent housekeeper you had darn well better become one. The dirty, cluttered kitchen does not inspire one to get creative or cook something, even the simplest dish. Not to mention that if you do find yourself in the mood to prepare a meal, if you hadn’t washed the dishes from the meal before, your choices for preparation is limited. Of course I have to prefer quality cookware and knives that can’t go in the dishwasher (I’ve been guilty of letting dishes that go in the dishwasher sit out, too). Could a Paleo diet improve my housekeeping? If it does, it will be begrudgingly so.

My very first Paleo type meal was breakfast (one of the blogs I’ve read (after I’ve already started) indicated that starting is often better if you start with breakfast for a few days, since it’s often the most grain filled meal of our day) in which I started by frying up bacon pieces (New Seasons in Oregon sells bacon pieces for $2.99 a pound, great for not wasting bacon if you aren’t interested in eating it at the time). I then added a handful of asparagus spears, put the lid on the pan and let them steam for a bit before adding orange peppers and chopped onions. Finally I added 2 scrambled up eggs and scrambled them up with the veggies. At the last moment I added about 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella that I happened to have on hand. Milk is something that I’m supposed to avoid on The Blood Type Diet as well as eating Paleo but, you know, it’s in the house, why waste it… and I love cheese! Quite a nice meal though I did use ketchup (sorry, it’s how I roll where eggs are concerned) and it had corn syrup (though I did see a version of Heinz Ketchup at the store, recently, that was made with cane sugar! Still anti Paleo but it’s good news for those who are trying to rid their lives of the hated HFCS). I’ll give fresh salsa a try, next.

You’ll see me dining on a fair amount of asparagus, when the seasons allow, because of the health benefits. For instance asparagus is rich in anti-inflammatory nutrients. Inflammation aggravates auto-immune diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, for example. Asparagus also acts as a diuretic which helps to reduce bloating due to PMS and helps to reduce the swelling of both arthritis and rheumatism. It’s rich in vitamin B12 and I have a family history of Pernicious Anemia, or a B12 deficiency. Asparagus is also a prebiotic which provides food for the probiotics that live in your intestines and help to aid in digestion. It’s also an antioxidant which helps to reduce our risks of cancer. Now this is something we should all be interested in but if you are on immunosuppressive therapy, you really need to do what you can to reduce your chances of cancer because your medication is suppressing your bodies ability to fight cancer cells. As was explained to me by my Dermotologist, we all have cancer cells developing in our bodies but our immune system fights them and they don’t develop any further. Antioxidants help to fight those cancer cells so you want to eat as much as you can, especially, if you’re on immunosuppressive therapy. Remember, food is a far better medicine than popping pills, if you can avoid it. Good nutrition can improve your health where as crappy nutrition can cause the body harm.

Where does the Paleo aspect come in, here? Organic eggs and veggies sauteed in nitrate free bacon grease. The only thing that wasn’t Paleo (remember, I’m imperfect as a Paleo, but working on heading in the right direction) was the 1/4 cup of Mozzarella cheese. Normally I would have had as much extra-sharp cheddar cheese that I could have gotten in there.

I may be absolutely wrong in everything I just wrote so do your own research and feel free to share your knowledge with me if you feel that I’m wrong, though, please sight your source so that we can all learn.